I. Metshin: "Our goal is to make Kazan the most comfortable city of Russia"

(Kazan City KZN.RU, October 28, Ksenia Shvetsova). Improvement of Kazan is one of the key directions in the development of the city. Due to the reconstruction of recreation areas and projects for improving of the abandoned areas, Kazan is confidently moving towards the main goal - to become the most comfortable city in Russia for 5 years. This opinion was expressed by the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin at today's II Session of Kazan City Duma, where the improvement of recreational areas for citizens was one of the key topics for discussion.

"Squares and parks are of great importance to the environmental safety of our city, it affect the health of our people, - said I. Metshin. - It is difficult to overestimate the role of the reconstruction of recreation areas, because this is not just improvement of the city, but also creation a healthy climate. We see it on example of the happy citizens of all ages: children, pensioners and youth walk in our updated parks. Parks and squares have an enormous impact on the social well-being of our residents. We are convinced that to declare the Year of parks and gardens was a timely decision of the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov".

As the deputy head of the Executive Committee – Chairman of the Committee of external improvement Igor Kulyazhev reported at the meeting, 8 new recreation areas appeared on the vacant lots and abandoned land over the last 3 years in Kazan. 310 million rubles were allocated from the budget of RT for their accomplishment (financing of the republic amounted to 1 billion rubles). Means of investors also play a significant role in the ennoblement of the territories. Thus, according to I.Kulyazhev, about 900 million rubles were sponsored by businesses for the renovation of parks in 2015.

It can be seemed how residents relate to the improvement of parks and gardens by their demand: for example, attendance at the Central Park of Culture and Rest after the reconstruction has increased 10 times and amounted to 20 thousand people a day. This is not surprising: due the reconstruction of parks and gardens not only new trees are planted but also the surrounding area is fully landscaped. For example, the first areas for walking with dogs, multifunctional sports grounds, areas for biking began to emerge in Kazan.

As noted by Assistant to the President of Tatarstan Natalia Fishman, recently approaches to improvement changed - they have begun to implement together with the population, and even to adjust the developed projects with the wishes of local residents.

In the future upgrading of recreation areas is planned to continue: now in Kazan work on 21 sites is fully completed. Until mid-November another 6 will be completed, including Gorky Park, "Wings of the Soviets", park next to Said Galiev House of Culture, squares "Vahitovskij", "Dauria" and area of Lebyazhye Lake. In 2016 the reconstruction of the park "Black Lake" starts - the concept of its accomplishment is already approved.

The reconstruction of parks and squares directly related to the greening of the city. Overall, the total number of trees planted in the last 3 years in Kazan increased the growth rate of vehicles registered during this period twice. For example, only with the project "Green Record" 135 thousand trees and 59 thousand shrubs appeared in the city. This project is unique - it has no analogues in Russia. At the same time, it is 24 square meters of green areas more per a person than it is prescribed in the regulations. All this allows Kazan to be considered rightly a "green city". Last year Kazan rose to 8th place in the environmental ranking of cities Russia, although only 3 years ago it was on the 45th. These results were achieved thanks the updating of the recreation areas in the city. At the same time, according to I.Kulyazhev, the city cannot stop the development, so cutting down trees is necessary too, but instead of this compensatory planting of greenery is held.

The Mayor thanked all those who took part in landscaping and ennobling of the city and pointed out that in order to maintain its position in these ratings, this work should be continued in the following years.

"We all did a great job in the upgrading of recreation areas, but more must be done. We set ourselves more ambitious goals than just the formation of the ecological frames of the city - said I. Metshin. - We are pleased with decision on the continuation of improvement, as the next year has been declared the Year of rivers and lakes by the President of the republic. Kazan has a lot of these reservoirs. Let us not forget that we have set the task: to make Kazan the most comfortable city of Russia over 5 years. And landscaping is one of the priorities that we have chosen to achieve this goal. I emphasize that all of this requires painstaking work together ".